KMT lawmaker questions justice minister on death row prisoner cases

Taipei, Oct. 1 (CNA) The 37 death row prisoners who have exhausted their appeals will remain in prison, Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) said Tuesday when questioned by opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲) at the Legislature.

The 37 death row prisoners will remain in prison, as per the Prison Act, even though the Constitutional Court on Sept. 20 ruled that the death penalty could only be applied to "the most serious" premeditated murders or premeditated crimes resulting in death.

The ruling also established a high threshold to significantly restrict the use of capital punishment in Taiwan in the future.

Speaking on the legislative floor, the KMT lawmaker's questions revolved around whether the death sentence of the 37 prisoners would be revoked, and if so, whether they would be released.

In response, Cheng said the death sentences would not change and the prisoners would not be released, unless the Supreme Court reviewed their individual cases and decided to issues new rulings or remit them to the original court for re-examination.

For the Supreme Court to even consider doing so, Cheng said, it would require the head prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors Office to file extraordinary appeals for those prisoners.

The Supreme Prosecutors Office has said it will do so for two of the death row inmates -- Chen Yi-lung (陳憶隆) and Huang Chun-chi (黃春棋) -- because the laws underlying their death sentences were ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on Sept. 20.

The two, convicted of kidnapping and murdering a businessman surnamed Huang (黃) in 1995, were sentenced to death based on an already defunct Criminal Code provision for the "mandatory death penalty."

As for the remaining 35 prisoners -- all of whom have been sentenced to death for homicide and most of whom have been in prison for over a decade -- the supreme prosecutors office said it would examine each case before determining its next step.

Cheng went on to say the prisoners would only be released if the presiding courts later ruled them not guilty, thus reversing their death sentences which were previously upheld by the Supreme Court.

"We must have confidence in the courts," Cheng said, hinting that such scenarios are unlikely.

Wu, a prosecutor-turned-lawmaker, also asked the official whether time spent behind bars by death row prisoners would be counted as time served if their penalties were changed to life imprisonment or fixed-term sentences.

Cheng ruled out such a possibility, citing the Criminal Code.

The KMT legislative caucus, which strongly opposes abolishing capital punishment, has strongly criticized the ruling by the Constitutional Court as abolishing the death penalty in all but name.

The caucus also held a press conference on Tuesday in a bid to pressure the Ministry of Justice into carrying out the sentences of the 37 prisoners on death row.